Language
learning is important for human’s social development. As a language
which is used by more than a half of population in the world, English
holds the key as international language. English is a tool of
communication among peoples of the world to get trade, social-cultural,
science, and technology goals. Moreover, English competence is important
in career development, therefore students need to understand and use
English to improve their confidence to face global competition.

English
as a formal subject is given to junior high school (SMP) level, which
the goals are translated as follows: “The goals of teaching and learning
English for this level are improving the four English skills. They are
the mastery of the receptive skills (reading and listening) and the
mastery of the productive skills (speaking and writing), within a
specified word level and relevant grammatical structures and notions, in
the context of the specified themes which are enclosed for junior high
school (SMP) students” (Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:42).

The
fact shows that the result of teaching learning English is still low.
Somantri said (2003) that there can be a wonder about the condition of
the student’s English ability. The students have learned English from
the first-grade of junior high school until senior high school, but most
of them still cannot use English as tool of communication. Zamroni in
Somantri (2003) found that it not only happened to the students who have
score below five, but the students who have score over eight in junior
high school can not use English in real communication in their level.
Besides, their receptive skills are also below the expectation. For
example, the students who have graduated from senior high school, they
still find difficulty in reading English literatures (Balitbang
Depdiknas, 2002:1).

These failures are influenced by many
factors. According to Zamroni in Somantri (2003), it happens because of
the education system at school just transfer the dead knowledge where
the knowledge is separated from the application. Teachers teach
materials that will be tested. The goal is that the students get good
score in the final test. While Ali in Ant-O2 (2005) argues that the low
of the students quality in teaching and learning English happens because
the students are used to memorizing and doing multiple choice
assignment. Both of arguments above show that the process of teaching
and learning English is not so support the improvement of life skills.
Students can get good score in the final test and they can memorize the
theory well but they cannot use English in real communication. Assessment
is one of important thing that has important role in education. The
importance of assessment in education is stated by Hughes (1989) who
says that the proper relationship between teaching and assessment is
partnership. By assessment process teacher can discover how far students
have achieved the objectives of a course of study. Teacher also can use
the result of assessment to analyze which material that should be
explained again and which instruments that should be repaired. Besides,
assessment is useful for the students to motivate in teaching learning
process.

Based on the earlier observation, researcher finds
that most of teachers still use traditional assessment. The students are
given some tasks in the form of multiple choice, do the LKS, practice a
dialog in textbook and another task, which make the students as a
passive subject. Traditional assessment includes multiple-choice
questions and asking students to respond questions with short answers.
Many kinds of task are given in order the students can respond the
questions with correct answers in the final test. The product of
learning is more emphasized then the process it self. Teacher gives
quizzes and tests to assess cognitive aspect only. This kind of
assessment is just recall student’s memorization.

In traditional
assessment process, teachers give less attention and rarely to assess
the student’s work. It brings the students become lack of attention
toward their error in finishing their work. According to Kasiram
(1984:10), learning will be on the decline if the students do not know
the result of their work. The students want to know feedback of their
effort in doing the work as a motivation in learning process. Dimyati
and Mudjiono (2002:48) stated that students would be more motivated in
learning if the students know the result of their work as a feedback. Under
the government policy, the Ministry of National Education develops new
curriculum to improve the education quality that is Competency Based
Curriculum. The success of Competency Based Curriculum may be consider
successfully if followed by the change of teaching and learning strategy
at class, the choosing of media, and the choosing of assessment
process. (Balitbang Depdiknas, 2002:1). Assessment processes in
Competency Based Curriculum aremore varies. One of them is Portfolio Assessment.

Arter
& Spandel (in Luitel, 2002) state the notion of portfolio. The
literary meaning of the term ‘portfolio’ is a collection of the past
work. However, in the context of assessment, portfolio does not
represent only a mere collection of the past work. The Northwest
Evaluation Association urges that the portfolio is a purposeful
collection of student work that tells the story of the student’s effort,
progress, or achievement in given areas. Portfolio can be viewed as a
systematic and organized collection of evidence used by the teacher and
student to monitor the growth of student’s knowledge, skills, and
attitudes in a specific content area. The indicators of portfolio
assessment are daily test result, structured tasks, anecdotal record,
and report of the student’s activity out of school (Budimansyah, 2002:
108). These indicators are put on the list and documented in a file.
From the collection, teacher assesses skill of the students. Teacher
turns the students to see their ability in learning by using portfolio
and turns the students to be careful in doing the work, pay attention to
the error in their work and correct the error.

Based on the
background, researcher interested in studying the student’s learning
achievement in the classes which use traditional assessment and
portfolio assessment. Researcher was conducting this study on the
students of SMP 4 Jambi, with the title “Student’s Learning Achievement
with Traditional Assessment and Portfolio Assessment”.